HP Pavilion DV3Z Review

The HP Pavilion DV3Z is the latest release by HP in the Pavilion series of notebooks. It is a 13 inch notebook, which competes with the likes of the Dell Studio XPS 13 etc but is much cheaper. It sports an AMD hardware configuration – a rarity these days when all notebook manufacturers choose to go with Intel Centrino 2 Duo based configurations. It has nice specs, a stylish design and is very compact. It starts at around $700 but you can customize it to your needs. In this review we check out the HP Pavilion DV3Z in greater detail and see if its worth a buy.

HP Pavilion DV3Z Specs:

• Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.1 x 1.3 inches
• Weight: 4.3 pounds / 4.8 pounds with 6 cell / 8 cell battery
• Processor: AMD Turion X2 ZM-84 Ultra Dual-Core at 2.3 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB RAM
• Hard Drive: 320 GB SATA HDD, 5400 RPM
• Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW DL
• Display Size: 13.3 inch LED backlit Display, 1280 x 800 pixels
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3200 with 64 MB VRAM
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0
• Operating System: MS Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1
• External Ports: 2 USB v2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, USB/eSATA, VGA out, 5 in 1 card reader, ExpressCard slot

Design and Build Quality:

The HP Pavilion DV3Z sports a very sleek and stylish design. It has dimensions of just about 12.2 x 9.1 x 1.3 inches, making it one of the slimmest budget 13 inch notebooks. It has a metallic glossy bronze look which looks very attractive. The build quality is sturdy and solid and the notebook should easily last you for about a couple of years if handled properly. The HP Pavilion DV3Z is very compact and light weighing just 4.8 pounds with the 9 cell battery. The glowing HP logo on the bottom right of the lid looks cool. The glossy surface is a fingerprint magnet though. The Pavilion DV3Z has a nice imprint finish which gives it an exclusive feel. All in all, the HP Pavilion DV3Z definitely scores on the design and build quality front.

Display and Speakers:

The HP Pavilion DV3Z sports a 13.3 inch display with a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The display quality is pretty nice and the display has optimum brightness and contrast levels. The display being glossy, doesn’t hold up quite well uder direct lighting conditions but is much more attractive than a regular matte display. The display is LED backlit which translates to better battery life and improved display quality. The display has decent viewing angles, both horizontal and vertical.

The HP Pavilion DV3Z comes with built in Altec Lansing speakers equipped with the SRS Premium Sound technology which offers superb sound quality. The sound is very rich and the volume levels are much better than normal notebook speakers. It is suited for music playback and movie watching. Though, as always, if you have a keen ear for music, we would recommend using better headphones. Above the display, you also find a VGA webcam which has decent capture quality. It should suffice for casual video chats.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The HP Pavilion DV3Z comes with a standard keyboard dressed in glossy brown which fits in with the brown chassis. The keys have an excellent feel and the key spacing is standard. The keyboard is roomy and ideal for touch typists. The keys offer nice feedback. It is a very good keyboard, much better than all the cramped netbook keyboards. There is very minimal flex near the keyboard area, thanks to the sturdy build. It also has a set of touch sensitive controls located just above the keyboard which give you access to all the basic multimedia functions and also look quite good.

Just below the keyboard, you find the touchpad located in the exact center. The touchpad is very sensitive and offers good response. The touchpad surface is very smooth and offers great navigational capabilities. IT also has a vertical scroller to the right. Below the touchpad are the two touchpad buttons. They have a nice feel and offer good feedback with a distinct click. The silver touchpad and the buttons blend in quite nicely with the body of the DV3Z.

Performance:

The HP DV3Z is powered by the AMD Turion X2 ZM-84 Ultra Dual-Core processor clocked at 2.3 GHz. It also has plenty of RAM – 4 GB which can be expanded to 8 GB. The storage department is handled by a 320 GB SATA HDD running at 5400 RPM. The graphics is handled by the ATI Radeon HD 3200. It also comes with a 8X DVD+/-RW DL optical drive. The hardware configuration is quite able and can easily run the bundled Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 without effort. It has a boot up time of about 55 seconds which can be reduced with some optimizations. The Processor – RAM – Graphics can manage almost all applications easily even when coupled with the demanding Windows Vista. The integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 can handle Aero easily and also some of the newer games at low settings. It is much better than Intel Integrated GMA graphics but loses to discrete graphics solutions. Though if you are seriously into gaming, don’t consider the HP DV3Z as an option. The processor lags behind in performance when compared to its Intel counterparts. We would have preferred an Intel based configuration but that would have pushed up costs too.

Battery Life and Other Features:

The HP Pavilion DV3Z is comes with two battery options – 6 cell and 9 cell battery. The 9 cell battery lasts about 4 hours with continued moderate usage, even with all the battery saving tips in action, while the 6 cell battery lasts much lesser. The battery life is much lower than the category average. You should try switching off Wi-Fi when not in use, lowering the display brightness etc to conserve the battery.

It comes with a wide array of external expansion ports like 2 USB v2.0 ports, Ethernet, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, USB/eSATA, VGA out, 5 in 1 card reader, ExpressCard slot. It comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth v2.0. The Wi-Fi speeds are pretty decent and have a good range.

Pros:

• Sleek Design
• Nice Display
• Great Speakers

Cons:

• Low Battery Life

Final Words:

The HP Pavilion DV3Z is a nice notebook with a sleek and stylish design, good hardware specs and a compact form factor. It is a good option for those looking to run basic office applications, multimedia files and are interested in light gaming.

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5.